Northern Ireland's "gay cakes" affair could be a gift to religious conservatives
By B.C. | BELFAST
AS I write in this week's print edition, there are fresh signs that religiously divided Northern Ireland is witnessing something that would have been inconceivable a decade ago: the emergence of a conservative coalition which transcends sectarian differences. Traditionalist Protestants, Catholics and even Muslims are joining forces to roll back what they see as a rising tide of liberal secularism.
Paul Givan, a young politician from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose roots are in sharp-edged Protestantism, invoked Catholic as well as Protestant concerns when he floated a piece of draft legislation which would allow businesses and other organisations to turn down jobs if issues of deeply held personal belief were at stake. He cited a recent decision by Catholic bishops to withdraw backing from an adoption agency rather than treat same-sex couples on the same terms as heterosexual ones; and the story of a bakery whose evangelical owners (pictured) turned away an order for a cake which would have carried the slogan, "Support Gay Marriage".
The idea of a sort of pan-religious "moral majority" is perfectly realistic, Mr Givan insists. He told me that in his constituency south of Belfast, some Catholics had assured him they were voting for the DUP because of its conservative stance on abortion and gay marriage. At a launch event for his proposal, he was happy to welcome a representative of the Belfast Islamic Centre. That suggests a happier turn in relations between the DUP and local Muslims, who felt patronised when party leader and first minister Peter Robinson said that he would trust a Muslim to "go down to the shops" for him.
Secularists and gay-rights activists say they are appalled by Mr Givan's initiative, which in their view could lead back to the bad old days of businesses picking and choosing their customers on sectarian or ethnic grounds. As John O'Doherty of the Rainbow Project, a gay-rights group, put it: "We don't have a problem with Christians, but they seem to have a problem with us—and it's a very fundamental problem, because they object to who we are. When they tell us that we shouldn't be who we are, it's like us telling Christians they shouldn't worship on a Sunday."
The outcome of Northern Ireland's escalating culture war will depend a lot on how each side manages to frame the issue. A Britain-wide opinion poll suggests that the "gay-cakes" affair could be a gift to social conservatives, because many people appear convinced by the bakery's argument that it was not turning away a customer, but merely declining to play an active role in propagating a message that offends its conscience. On the other hand, the same poll found clear majorities for the view that businesses, including hotels, should generally be obliged to treat all customers, including same-sex couples, alike.
If religious conservatives in Northern Ireland try to use the gay-cakes affair to bring about a general rolling back of equality legislation, they will surely fail. But if they keep the focus relatively narrow and cakes-based (in other words, if they merely seek to prove that there are some limited circumstances in which conscience should prevail), that may have some traction.
